Blue Cayenne

He was orphaned during the Ethiopian Civil War of the 1970s. Adopted by a Swedish family, he grew up in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he credits his grandmother, Helga, for his love of cooking. Trained in the culinary arts in Sweden, Austria, France and Switzerland, he landed an apprenticeship at the Swedish restaurant Aquavit in New York City and immigrated to the United States at age 24 with $300 in his pocket. He quickly won accolades for his culinary genius– recipient of a James Beard Foundation award as “Best New Chef/NYC” in 2003, author of best-selling cookbooks, guest chef at Barack Obama’s first state dinner in 2009 and on an on. 

Marcus Samuelsson’s story is yet another American immigrant success story. 

And now Samuelsson is giving back. During the pandemic, he converted three of his restaurants into community kitchens and, in partnership with Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen and Audible, has served more than 250,000 meals to first responders and the needy. 

Here is a PBS profile that was done of Samuelsson by Judy Woodruff and Jeffrey Brown on the occasion of the publication of Samuelsson’s 2020 cookbook The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food. Here is the link: Marcus Samuelsson. It’s an interesting interview and  worth your time to watch and listen. 

Here is a Samuelsson recipe for Black-Eyed Peas With Coconut Milk and Ethiopian Spices. It’s wonderful!

In case you can’t find berbere seasoning, here is a link to Samuelsson’s recipe: berbere.

This recipe is an adaptation of one that appeared in Food and Wine Magazine. Here is the link to the original recipe: Black-Eyed Peas.

Want to diversify your homemade bread baking game? This Persian flat bread is just the ticket. It’s called Nan-e Barbari and it is delicious.

This recipe is adapted from one that is regularly featured at The Hot Bread Kitchen in East Harlem in New York City. Hot Bread Kitchen is a bakery that trains low-income minority women, many of them refugees, to open their own food businesses or to compete for management-level positions in the food industry. The bakery’s business model incorporates many of the international breads that the trainees have prepared in their home countries and/or in their home kitchens—challahs, focaccias, tortillas and nan-e barbari to name a few. I have several dozen cookbooks on baking (I’m an unabashed cookbook collector!) and The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook is one of the first cookbooks I reach for when I want to make an interesting loaf. 

Nan-e Barbari, according to Persian food authority and cookbook author Najmeih Batmanglij (Food of Life), is one of Iran’s most popular breads. It is commonly served freshly-baked for breakfast with fresh feta, black olives and sweet tea. I paired mine with a thick lentil soup.

Batmanglij writes that Nan-e Barbari is to Persian cuisine what the baguette is to French cuisine–indispensable!

I’ve got a problem with dark green leafy vegetables. (There. I said it.)

I can “do” spinach. But…just mention the word kale and I…er… turn green. Collard greens? Don’t even go there. Ever.

Chard, however, has always been a leafy green vegetable that straddles the line for me—greener than most but not quite  (gasp!) kale. Chard is pretty, too–particularly rainbow chard.  Pretty is important in food in my opinion. (Oh, no! Did that “pretty” remark make me sound shallow?)

I am forever grateful to my friend Carole who turned me on to chard. She used to bring me bags of glorious chard fresh from her neighbor’s community garden.

So, I was delighted to find this recipe for Chard With Tomatoes and Green Olives in Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest cookbook, Flavor.

There is a whole lot of good stuff going on with this recipe. The chard is gently sautéed in olive oil. The stems are separated from the leaves and become a separate crunchy component of the dish. Then there is the wow factor in the dish—tomatoes slow sautéed in a garlic and onion sauce and then poured over the sautéed chard. The whole dish is further enhanced by a bit of lemon, fresh basil chiffonade and…wait for it…green olives.

This dish is served at room temperature. I served it in a salad bowl with sliced freshly-roasted beets and a scoop of cottage cheese. The possibilities with this dish are endless.

Did I mention that it is pretty?